Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is weird to claim that we are isolating people by increasing service hours. Nobody is being isolated or missing out. In fact, we are increasing the opening hours of libraries. If people use the service and have concerns that need to be addressed or require help from staff, that may give us the evidence we need to have more staff working increased hours. I see that as a positive.

To claim that these changes are a cutback or will add to isolation is a strange way to approach this. People feeding the Deputy information may have a different agenda. All the staff involved in the three pilot cases did not raise these concerns. Everything went quite smoothly and any concerns were dealt with. Reports are available. It was a positive experience.

One would have to scrape the barrel to make this out to be a negative experience. I am surprised that people are finding negative elements to these changes. The library service is aware of all concerns and they will be addressed. Nothing dramatic happened over the three years of the pilot scheme. Many services operate in this way.

This is increasing the availability of library services. It is a positive initiative and using our assets more. I cannot understand how people can see anything negative in these changes. There are other concerns about libraries but they are a different matter. People may use this agenda to fight a different battle, which is a shame and spoils a positive new story. People want some good news stories.

The Deputy asked about the conditions pertaining to future libraries. They will be in a position to be able to avail of the scheme. Decisions may be made at a local level as to whether to provide the service but if libraries are being built or upgraded, it would make sense that they are ready for the scheme. We genuinely see this as a positive enhancement of services rather than a negative initiative. I am disappointed that the Deputy is taking this view.

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